I aim to please

I hope you have some time, this one is a little long, sorry.
The Peace Corps was founded in 1961 (Damn, I'm even older than the Peace Corps) with three aims which are still the guiding principles today. The first aim is to assist peoples in interested countries in meeting their need for trained men & women. The second aim is to promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served. Finally, to promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.
Besides any other reasons I may have had for starting this blog I suppose that at least part of the idea is to fulfill the third aim of the Peace Corps as well. So here goes.
As I have said (complained?) before it can be somewhat niosy here. One of my avid readers (hat wouldbe you Mike) is wondering why since most noisemaking involves spanding money in one way or another. With Benin being one of the ten poorest countries in the world the question is "Why is their money available for noisemaking when it is often difficult to have enough money for food, clothing or housing?" Good question. I'll explain as best I can with my as yet somewhat limited exposure to the culture here.
There are natural and man-made sources of noise. You might think that the natural noises are the same here as in the US and in some aspects you would be right. Thunder, for instance, cannot be controlled anywhere. The same with wind and rain. The only difference here is that I have a tin roof. With a heavy rainfall it can be difficult to have a conversation, or sleep, with the sound from the roof. Also this is almost entirely an agrarian society. That means that there are chickens, goats, pigs and cows almost everywhere. Never having lived on a farm I never realized how much noise domesticated animals can make. The animals here are all free range. There are no pens or holding areas so a rooster, or pig, can show up at anytime of the day. The roosters here appear to have no respect for sunrise. They will crow at anytime of the day or night. In case, you don’t know roosters are very loud and can be very disturbing when close by. Coupled with clucking chickens; rooting and grunting pigs and bleating goats I will never again think of life on a farm as being peaceful.
Besides the chickens, roosters, pigs and goats there are cows. The cows are herded by a nomadic group here called the Foulani (I’mnot sure of the spelling) so their appearance is somewhat sporadic. There is however the occassional clash with the modern world. Since the cows (as well as chickens, goats etc) use the same roads as the cars, trucks and zemidjans there is inevitably a problem between the two. Cows move a little slower than cars but are bigger than chickens. It is difficult to avoid a cow in the road. Two weeks ago a zemi almost hit a cow. There were no serious injuries, just some minor road rash, but there was quite a bit of noise. Not from the accident itself but from the argument and mini stampede afterwards. The only thing that prevented either from getting out of hand was the Foulani herder.
The Foulani have been living like they now do for several hundred years. They are very good at controlling, and protecting, their cows. One herder was able to stop about 50 large cows in only a couple of minutes. Each Foulani herder carries a large stick which they use for herding and protecting their cows. The use in herding is obvious, hitting the cows to move them, turn them or stop them. They are very adept in the use of these sticks. At about 8 feet in length they are almost poles. The protective part of the sticks is in the herders ability to ward off, and even kill, predators. This inludes poachers or any other human deemed as a threat to the herd. The zemidjan driver knew of this ability and did not press the argument too far. Ah, the simple life.
In addition to the domesticated livestock there are, of course, abundant numbers of wildlife around as well. The most important from a noise standpoint is the birdlife. There are quite of number of songbirds and crows as well as some pigeons and birds of prey. The sonbirds are responsible for most of the noise but crows can also be very noisy at times.
So, on to the man-made and, maybe, costly sources of noise. Actually, most of the non-natural noise here is not unique to the culture but, as you will see, exagerated by the level of poverty here. There is one exception however.
Similar to the US traffic is a major source of noise. Not many paople here can afford to own private transportation but there are quite a few taxis, trucks and zemidjans. Like in any poor, developing country people do not have a lot of money tos pend on transportation. This means that there is not a lot of profit to be made in the transportation industry. This, in turn, means that there is not a lot of money to reinvest in new equipment. Vehicles here are generally somewhat old and in less than pristine condition. (The fact that cars, trucks and zemidjans continue to be able to operate given the conditions of roads in West Africa is a great testament to the intelligence, resourcefulnessand ingenuity of the Beninese.) There are often squeaky springs, inefficient mufflers and a myriad number of other noises emanating from any part of the average vehicle here. Although we do have two stop signs in Ketou there are no traffic lights. Consequently the intersections hee are another source of noise from horns and shouting, but remarkably few accidents.
Also, like the US and other countries, another source of noise is children. (One could argue that children are natural but that has never been my contention.) The fertility rate in Benin is 6.6 Accounting for infant mortality there are still more than 5 children in each household. With the prevalence of bigamy here I am defining one household as a women with children. Many men have their wives living apart from each other (I told you they were smart here.) so there are many women with children who appear to live alone but in fact host their husbands one week a month. Yes, go ahead and do the math. Some men here have over 20 children.
Although Africa in general, and Benin in particular, is considerably more rural than the US Ketou has a population of about 40,000. Forty percent of the population, or about 16,000, is below the age of 15. (There is no “graying” of Africa.) I don’t think I need to explain the level of noise that is capable from 16,000 children. I don’t think I could if I had to.
Another source of man-made noise is industry. There are not many large employers in Benin, and none in Ketou. Most people here, lie those in transportation, are self)employed. Everybody either sells, makes or fixes something. On virtually every street there are tailors, welders, bicycle, or car or truck, repair shops food vendors of one kind or another, barbers, bars and various other types of vendors or service provider. Ther are two kinds of noise from this sort of commerce. First, of course, the lack of a central commercial district means that there is foot and vzehicle traffic everywhere, all the time. People bargaining, sometimes loudly, cars with less that perfect mufflers etc. Second, many of the businesses have equipment. Welders have torches, repair shops have compressors, food vendors have processors to crush tomatoes into paste or corn into flour and on and on and on. Just like the vehicles many of these machines arenot in the best working order and often noisy. Even the ones that are working well are not competing for quietest on the block.
Another large source of noise is religion. Again, I suppose there could be an argument that religion is not man-made but I am sticking to earthly manifestations and not addressing anything supernatural.
There is a theory that people turn to religion more often in times of stress and economic downturn. For example, the Bible was the no. 1 bestseller in the US for several weeks during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Poverty is an undisputes sourse of stress, not to mention the economic downturn part. If not proven, the theory is well supported here. As I’ve said before there are practically uncountable number of places of worship here. I seem to find more every week. From at least a dozen mosques, one large Catholic church, several protestant denominations, the local mixture of Christianity and Voodoo, Christianisme Celeste, private non-denominational conclaves and several voodoo sects there is virtually always a service of one kind of another going on at all times. Services can be at ant time of the day or night as well. Every day during Raadan each mosque sends out a congregation to the house of each member. Each congregation consists of one person shouting something in Arabic (This might actually be singing but it doesn’t sound like it to me.) and one or two others banging drums. (Again, this might be considered music to some but not to me.) I do not know the function of this paticular clamor, but it occured every night during Ramadan at 2:30 am. Ramadan is now, thankfully, over until next year. Also, with Islam, there is a call to prayer emanating from every mosque five times a day. I don’t know why but every mosque has a PA system and loudspeaker for this purpose.
As I said earlier the one Catholic church here is very large. The Sunday morning service, coupled with thaat of the Protesant and Christiane Celeste at the same time means that music and singing can be heard in virtually every corner of the city on Sunday mornings.
Voodoo ceremonies are often conducted in public. These are generally fairly small and erratic. Often confined to one street or even just one building they are usually not a major source of noise. The one exception is the ORO sect. I wrote about Oro ceremonies in an earlier post if you want more details. Women are not allowed outside the day, or night, of the ceremony. The men, however, ae very active and boisterous long into the night all ove the town.
The final source of noise is due to the culture and pays no espect to the level of poverty. It is practiced in much the same way by everyone here regardless of how much, or how little, money they have. As I said everyone here is a member of some religion or other. A tenet common to virtually all religions is a belief in the afterlife of some kind or another. A tenet virtually all Beninese, regardless of religion, is that entry into the afterlife is a cause foe celebration.
When somebody dies here they are buried almost immediately, after one or two days at the most. This is because of the climate and lack of mortuary services. Bodies decompose quickly here. After burial however there is always a party that puts the term ‘Irish wake’ to shame. First, there is a procession. This is led by a band in a truck, both hired for the occassion. The procession includes all family members, friend and any other members of the community who wish to participate. After the procession which itself can last for several hours, there is a gathering at the home of the deceased. If everybody cannot fit into the house then the street, or even sometimes the entire neighborhood, is occupied.
The band stays on at the party. There is also a PA system setup so that family and friends can express their feelinf of the deeased to the group when the band is not playing. Neither the band nor the PS system are set to volume levels required to address only the gathering. They can be heard some distance away. Added to this, of course, is the talking and, often, singing of the assembled horde. This all combines into a din that waxes and wanes to sometimes deafening levels even at a distance. Oh yeah, this lasts for at least two or three days, sometimes more.
Fortunately infrequent, this is the one source of noise that isnot caused by poverty. It is a cultural phenomenon shared by some others. Unfortunately, it is an expensive undertaking. There are costs to hiring a and, a truck and renting a PA system. It also costs money to supply food and drink, and not just water, to sometimes several hundred people for several days. Also, when the party is over memorial notices are printed and distributed, increasing the cost even more.
There is one other contributing factor to the noise level here. While not a source of noise the local architecture does not work to absorb or otherwise decrease noise. The most common building materials here are cinder blocks and cement. They may not be the least acquire but they do not require any significant, expensive, expertise to work with and can be maintained and repaired relatively easily. Also, if a person runsout of money before completing a project it can be left until more money is available to finish it. There are quite a numbeer of unfinished buildings here due to this reason.
Hopefullly this posting was able to help some of you to a little better understand life in one o the ten poorest countries in the world. If it has then I can say that I am accomplishing one of the aims of the Peace Corps. Won’t my director be happy! Seriuosly though this is what the Peace Corps and other organizations are trying to stop. By teqching people money management and other practical business skills we hope to help break the poverty cycle. Eventually I will be actually start doing some work here and will try to relate how I am trying to help. For now I am talking to people to try to learn the particular problems they are having. After that I hope to be able to help them find some solutions to those problems so they can get themselves on the road to a better life. Someday I’ll start posting those stories. In the meantime though it’s Thanksgiving in Parakou next. Deep fried turkey, yummy.